Irish literature

For a comparatively small country, Ireland has made a disproportionate contribution to world literature in all its branches. The works that are best known outside the country are in English, but Irish Gaelic also has the most significant body of written literature, both ancient and recent, in any Celtic language, in addition to a strong oral tradition of legends and poetry. See also the main article on modern literature in Irish.

Fiction

Although the epics of Celtic Ireland were written in prose and not verse, most people would probably consider that Irish fiction proper begins in the 18th century with the works of Jonathan Swift (especially Gulliver's Travels) and Oliver Goldsmith (especially The Vicar of Wakefield).

Related Topics:
Irish fiction - Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels - Oliver Goldsmith - The Vicar of Wakefield

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A number of Irish novelists emerged during the 19th century, including Maria Edgeworth, John Banim, Gerald Griffin, Charles Kickham, William Carleton, George Moore and Somerville and Ross. Most of these writers came from the Anglo-Irish ruling classes and they wrote what came to be termed novels of the big house. Carleton was an exception, and his Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry showed life on the other side of the social divide.

Related Topics:
Maria Edgeworth - John Banim - Gerald Griffin - Charles Kickham - William Carleton - George Moore - Somerville and Ross - Anglo-Irish

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Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, was somewhat outside this tradition.

Related Topics:
Bram Stoker - Dracula

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George Moore spent much of his early career in Paris and was one of the first writers to use the techniques of the French realist novelists in English. He can be seen as one of the precursors of the most famous Irish novelist of the 20th century, James Joyce. Joyce is often regarded as the father of the literary genre "stream of consciousness" which is best exemplified in his famous work, Ulysses. Joyce also wrote Finnegans Wake, Dubliners, and the semi-autobiographical A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce's high modernist style had its influence on coming generations of Irish novelists, most notably Samuel Beckett, Brian O'Nolan, who published as Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen, and Aidan Higgins. O'Nolan was bilingual and his fiction clearly shows the mark of the native tradition, particularly in the imaginative quality of his storytelling and the biting edge of his satire.

Related Topics:
Paris - French - James Joyce - Genre - Stream of consciousness - Ulysses - Finnegans Wake - Dubliners - Autobiographical - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Modernist - Samuel Beckett - Flann O'Brien - Aidan Higgins

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The big house novel prospered into the 20th century, and Aidan Higgins' first novel Langrishe, Go Down is an experimental example of the genre. More conventional exponents include Elizabeth Bowen and Molly Keane (writing as M.J. Farrell).

Related Topics:
Elizabeth Bowen - Molly Keane - M.J. Farrell

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With the rise of the Irish Free State and the Republic of Ireland, more novelists from the so-called lower social classes began to emerge. Frequently, these authors wrote of the narrow, circumscribed lives of the lower-middle classes and small farmers. Exponents of this style range from Brinsley McNamara to John McGahern.

Related Topics:
Irish Free State - Republic of Ireland - Brinsley McNamara - John McGahern

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The short story has also proven popular with Irish fiction writers. Well known short story writers include Frank O'Connor and Sean O'Faolain.

Related Topics:
Short story - Frank O'Connor - Sean O'Faolain

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